What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

Exactly 38 years ago, the Grateful Dead were playing the Uptown Theatre. They opened their nearly year-long schedule of concerts at the Uptown with a three-night set on February 26, 27, and 28, 1981.

Poster courtesy of the Psychedelic Art Exchange

Tickets cost $10 ($11 for the good seats). The concerts were sponsored by JAM Productions and Budweiser.

You can hear what the concert sounded like here.

What no one foresaw was that 1981 would be the last year of the Uptown's life as a live music venue. A December 19, 1981 show by the J. Geils Band was its swan song.

After lying dormant since 1981, the theater was in the news last summer, when it was announced that the once-magnificent building would be restored. (We still can't believe it's happening!)

Work is scheduled to begin in August, and the Uptown should be open for business -- again -- in early 2021, just about forty years after the Dead played their three-night stand.

We can't wait. CanNOT wait!